Why I left Yahoo for VMware

I work in the open source community with OpenStack. This gives me the freedom to do my work at Yahoo or any of the other great companies that are doing work in this field. It’s a role I relish and have a lot of fun doing. I have not always been this committed to open source and its ideals. I thank Joshua McKenty, Jonathan Bryce, Mark Collier, Lauren Sell, and the other great people of the OpenStack community for my conversion. Now that I am of the converted, I have a long list of ideas and projects I want to develop and work on. Yahoo was a good place for me to start, but it is time for me to move on to be able really focus on OpenStack.

That being said, I love working at Yahoo. If I could go back in time and change things, I would not. The sometimes bumpy path has allowed me to grow and learn. Many of the friends and colleagues I have now are a direct result of the indirect path I have taken. Yahoo has changed my life in many positive ways. I know Yahoo will continue to grow and thrive. Since Marissa Mayer has taken the helm, we the employees have felt and believed in the surge in pride and enthusiasm. There are many good people at Yahoo that I will be leaving behind. It’s been a great 4+ years and it’s time for me to take on some new challenges.

Preeti Somal will be taking over representing Yahoo on the OpenStack board. She will be a strong voice on the board and I welcome her. I will move to VMware working with Martin Casado and other Nicira people. VMware and Nicira have a long history of development and innovation. I will be part of a new chapter focusing on open source and OpenStack. I am looking forward to being a strong partner with OpenStack.

I will continue to support the same training and congress projects in my new role with developers and code. The support of the SFBay OpenStack user group, OpenStack Ambassadorship, and the leadership of the community training guides will go with me to VMware. I am firmly committed to making OpenStack world-class and moving to VMware will allow me to focus on doing just that.